Saturday, April 18, 2015

There seems to be a tendency among human
beings in general to follow the successful ideas of others. We
know that because there are so many successful "do as I do" courses,
classes, get rich quick seminars, etc. Look at the way that product
sales soar if Dr Oz recommends it on his TV show! An unknown herb or
supplement can become high in demand overnight!

Of course it is also this way in the diabetic
community. A new diabetes drug is approved and advertised on TV,
marketed to your doctor and the next thing you know either your doctor is
giving you a sample or you are asking him about it yourself. When
somebody posts a cinnamon "cure"or an okra in water "cure"
on facebook every one lines up for it. When someone else posts on a blog
that their blood sugar goes down by 40 points when they walk a mile or pull
weeds for 30 minutes you may think that you should try it yourself.
Another diabetic may post that their morning blood sugar is always lower
when they eat peanut butter before bed. You want to try that too!

Disappointingly you may have found that you've tried many of these things that are working for others and instead of
lowering your blood sugar it raises it or does nothing for you at all.
That bottle of Bitter Melon capsules is now sitting unused in your cupboard because it raised
your blood sugar even though Dr Oz told you how successful it would be at lowering
it! It can be so frustrating!

Why isn't this working!

We are all individuals! Let's not forget that! Your body is not Bob's body or Sue's body. Your liver function is not the same as Bob's and your cortisol (stress) hormones don't respond like Sue's.

Sue can eat peanut butter and you can't. Bitter Melon worked wonders for Bob but it worked like a placebo for you. Someone posted a perfect blood sugar reading on facebook after eating a 10 oz steak with a heap of onions on top. At the same time you're upset because you just had a 30 point rise from your 3 oz piece of "plain Jane"chicken thigh! It's no wonder you are ready to throw in the towel!

Well, don't do that! Instead take some time to focus on learning how YOUR body works!

How do YOU respond to stress? How does YOUR body respond to a one mile walk or raking the leaves?

What is the meat or vegetable portion size that YOU can tolerate for steady blood sugar control? Maybe you can eat a tomato or perhaps you can't. So how do you know?

"Nothing worth while is ever easy and nothing easy is ever worthwhile" as the saying goes. This is true or it wouldn't be quoted often. You are your own N=1 experiment. (N meaning the number of people in the experiment).

You may want to stock up on an extra inexpensive meter and additional strips like the Reli-On meter and strips from Walmart. It costs about $16.00 for the meter and only $9.00 for 50 strips. You will need to use these for your experiments.

Here is a helpful article to get you started in checking your personal responses to exercise, stress and carbs or other foods. Believe it or not, some people get a high blood sugar from beef but not from chicken so you may even want to do testing of various proteins on your N=1.

Click on the link below to see some examples of how to run some personal tests on yourself. These are examples but you can think of more.

Dr. Brian Mowll of Sweetlife Diabetes Center has a short 9 minute video above on how to test your own responses. He also explains some common terms.

To finish this up I want to encourage you to make this a journey of discovery of yourself. In the case of blood sugar control, that is, YOUR personal blood sugar control; it is all about you! It is not about the other guy!

About Sandy

Hi, I'm Sandy. I'm married, have 3 grown kids and two granddaughters, 7 year old Delia and 4 year old Corabelle.
I retired from my banking job in Nov. 2014 to pursue a diploma course in Nutritional Therapy and Detox Specialist with a Functional Medicine slant.
I was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes in December of 2009. I went in for my routine physical which included a fasting glucose test. It was 225 that day. A follow-up A1c test was 8.6 clearly proving what I didn't want to be true. Like my mother, my brother, my sister and the generation before us, I had finally crossed over. I had not dodged the bullet. After the shock and my 3 week long pity party I became determined to find a way to manage and reverse it.
This is where I began my blog. I have been learning to manage diabetes since 2009 with a basic low carb diet and beginning in Dec. 2012, a high fat, low carb ketogenic diet.
A ketogenic diet is the diet that I currently eat and advocate for all type 2 diabetics to keep blood sugar in or close to normal non-diabetic range.
It is my desire to share my journey with other type 2 diabetics to perhaps aid them in their own journeys.